1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an information processing system and an information processing apparatus in which an operation to select an object displayed on a display screen by using a cursor key and a mouse is performed and processing of information assigned to a selected object is performed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, many of a video recording and reproducing apparatus, a television apparatus, and various other household electrical appliances can be remotely operated by an associated remote controller. In addition, in recent years, apparatuses which can be connected to the Internet, thus enabling browsing of web pages has become prevalent. However, an operating section of a remote controller is mainly constituted of keys such as direction keys and numeric keys. Therefore, this makes efficient operation difficult because a user may need to repeat key operations such as moving a focus until the focus reaches a target text part when the user performs an operation to select a text part to which a hyperlink is set while browsing a web page through the key operations.
Thus, a remote controller is proposed which enables a cursor to move in a free direction through key operations, like a mouse, by switching modes. According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No 2005-229594 (Paragraphs [0058]-[0059]), when a direction button of a remote controller is pressed while a mouse mode is selected, a cursor pointer is moved to a direction of the direction button of the remote controller, and the cursor pointer continues to move if the direction button is continuously held down. This enables operability similar to an actual mouse to be acquired.
However, it is still difficult to perform an operation to freely move the cursor pointer as if it were an actual mouse, by utilizing up, down, right, and left direction buttons of the remote controller.
Thus, a remote controller in which a cursor key operating section and a mouse operating section are integrally provided is studied. The cursor key operating section and the mouse operating section of this remote controller operate as an independent operation system to each other. That is to say, the cursor key operating section is utilized as an operation system which causes a user to move a position of a focus for visualizing, as a selection candidate, one of a plurality of objects displayed on a display screen, and which causes a user to select a selection candidate object on which the focus is located. Meanwhile, the mouse operating section is utilized as an operation system which displays a cursor pointer on a display screen, and lets a user to move this cursor pointer and select an object the cursor pointer points to. As such different operation systems are integrally provided on the remote controller, the user can perform operations by using an operation system which is easy for him/her to use, depending on a configuration of Graphical User Interface (GUI) or an application to be displayed. On the other hand, there are problems as described below.
Since the focus of the cursor key operating section and the cursor pointer of the mouse operating section are independent, it is possible that each of them can select a different object. Assume that a user attempts to utilize a function assigned to an object by means of the cursor key operating section. If the user mistakenly performs an enter input operation on the mouse operating section although he/she moves the focus to a target object through operation of the cursor key operating section and makes this object a selection candidate, and if the cursor pointer is then located on a different object, the object to which the cursor pointer points is selected, and a function assigned to the object other than the target object is started.
In light of the circumstances described above, there is a need to provide an information processing system and an information processing apparatus that can reduce occurrences of erroneous operations in which a function assigned to an object not intended by a user is performed, and that can achieve an improvement of operability.